Minimalism describes movements in various forms of art and design, especially visual art and music, where the work is stripped down to its most fundamental features.

Art Deco is based on mathematical geometric shapes. It was widely considered to be an eclectic form of elegant and stylish modernism, being influenced by a variety of sources.

Michael Myer’s (a.k.a. drawsgood) illustration’s falls nothing short of awesome. I first got a whiff of his genius when he did an illustrated series of the characters from the T.V. series “LOST”, immediately I became an instant fan and I’ve been stalking him ever since.

Today I bring to you his rendition of DC heroes and villains (note: actually it’s just one villain but I’m looking forward to more and will update this post when Michael is ready with them. ) He creates them in the styles of modern art deco minimalists which caught my fancy this last couple of years. I’ve been seeing them around a lot lately, mostly cult classics of movies or TV and comic book characters. The layout is simple, the color is flat, the font is classic, the texture is vintage or grunge the impact is jaw dropping, well at least for me it is. But I’m hoping to convert some of you today with the help “drawsgood” himself.

Check them out and enjoy! And may you find inspiration in these masterful works of art by Michael Myers!

DC Heroes

Superman

Batman

Robin

Wonder Woman

Aquaman

Flash

Green Lantern

“as featured in Green Lantern in 30 graphic inspirations”

Green Arrow

DC Villains

This is the only DC villain Michael has illustrated so far, but I’m sure he’s working on something and when he’s done we’ll post them here. Besides Lex Luthor is all the super villain you need! He’s a genius, unforgiving, conniving, sneaky, rich, no one knows what he’ll be up to next.

Lex Luthor

One day I will have one of this framed and adorn the walls of my personal office, but for now I’m happy just to be able to check them out from time to time.

If you like Michael Myers creations you may purchase a print copy at imagekind.com or make a statement with his wearable artwork as shirts at threadless.com

Find Michael Myers on the web

Website: www.drawsgood.com

Blog: Drawsgood Illustration and Design Blog

Portfolio: Deviantart, Bēhance, Society6

Social Network: Twitter, Facebook, Linked

Visit other prodigalconcepts.com inspirations…

Today we have someone who’s work would make any graphic loving Filipino proud to be Pinoy! A very talented Illustrator who goes by the name “Elpinoy” roughly translates as “The Pinoy” or “The Filipino” at deviantart.com Chester Ocampo in-real life (IRL) is a digital illustrator based in Manila. His projects include but are not limited to promotional pieces and advertising, comic books, comic book covers, character design and concept art. Chester Ocampo has been commissioned to do art work for notable companies like Animax, Cartoon Network, EA Comics, Berserk Entertainment and the list goes on.

I’ve compiled a few of his best works in this post I hope you guys like them. And may you find inspiration in his work or simply drool and enjoy them.

Warsong

Aladdin

Victorious

the Specialist

Test Pilot

Sinbad

“Midnight Monarchs

Infinity: Ambush

Domaru Butai

Darna

Army of Two Across The Border

infinity: Human Sphere

FantaSiege: The Three-Kingdom War

Where to find Chester Ocampo on the web:

Website: www.chesterocampo.net

Gallery: deviantart

Michael Myers (not the knife wielding, scary guy wearing a mask from the Halloween Movie franchise) is a designer and illustrator from Iowa, U.S.A. (also referred to as the “American Heartland” which incidentally gave us the spooky looking, mask wearing but hard rocking band Slipknot*) his illustrations are just phenomenal! He creates these imaginative characters that ranges from the obscene to the abstract or a fusion of spooky and funky that only makes it more interesting and fun. Michael Myers interpretation of the LOST cast makes this feature post of the week because he has given a new life to the characters we’ve all grown to appreciate throughout their 6 seasons. The T.V. show’s time to shine has passed on to the realm of re-runs but our special guest illustrator Michael Myers shining moment will continue to brighten our days for a very long time. I hope you guys enjoy!

The Black Smoke

Jacob

Mr. Charles Widmore

Mr. Eko

Daniel Faraday

Miles Straume

Desmond Hume

Walt Lloyd

Richard Alpert

Benjamin Linus

John Locke

Charlie Pace

Hugo "Hurley" Reyes

Sun-Hwa Kwon

Kwon Jin-Soo

Sayid Jarrah

James Ford a.k.a. Sawyer

Kate Austen

Jack Shephard

Find Michael Myers on the web

Website: www.drawsgood.com

Blog: Drawsgood Illustration and Design Blog

Portfolio: Deviantart, Bēhance, Society6

Social Network: Twitter, Facebook

Today were featuring the amazing works of Sana Takeda she’s a Japanese Artist based in Tokyo, who developed her illustration skills while working as a 3d modeler for a game publishing house. Her work with several big name American comics like Marvel, Aspen and Image speaks loudly of her talent and creativity. Currently she’s taken over the duties of penciling, inking and coloring the contents (internal) and cover art for Ms Marvel.

Check out her Marvelous illustrations…

Ms. Marvel Series Covers

Series #42

Series #43

Series #44

Series #45

Series #46

Series #48

Series #49

Series #50

Spiderman

Spiderman Clone Saga

X-Men

X-Men Forever

RF Online

Look for Sana Takeda on the web

Website: Sana Takeda’s Art Gallery

More gallery: Marvel Images

Blog: Sana Takeda

I had an amazing experience getting to know DrFranken a little bit a few weeks back, a digital artist from Madrid and the other half of nastplas.com, I featured some of his mind blowing artwork in my article “The art of DrFranken”. But today I got one even better, he was cool enough to shoot the breeze and spend a short time with prodigal concepts.

I would like to welcome you to prodigal concepts and thank you for spending time with us today.

Your work can be found all over the web, Deviantart, Behance, blogsites that features your art to name a few, you were also published in print. So we have an idea of your style and fantastic creativity.

Q: Can you tell us a bit more about DrFranken. A short bio perhaps? Tell us how it all started for you, how you decided to be in this field?

Artist, Fran Rodrìguez Learte, “drfranken” was born in La Coruna, Spain in 1979. He graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Salamanca in 1998. drfranken lives and works in Madrid, Spain. For many years he experimented with different techniques and mediums. Now he concentrates on digital art and his work as a computer programmer in engineering.

My artistic side came since childhood especially on the part Paterna. My father was a great artist. He painted using all sorts of techniques such as oil, charcoal, pencil, watercolor. My mother also paints very well and loves the arts. But my interest in digital art arises when I start my studies as a computer programmer and start to discover a world of new possibilities and tools to express my art.

Q: It’s a creatively demanding world we’re in, how does an artist like yourself stay original? What’s your philosophy on originality?

Being original is the ability to produce something new through the application of imaginative and thinking skills. Currently it is very dificult to be original as there are many artists who have done practically everything, but there is always something you can do and try to differentiate themselves from the rest somehow.

Q: Your work is distinguished for taking a life of its own. What are some of the tools you use to achieve such amazing effect?

I always use several tools to work, from software such as photoshop, painter or C4D to photographs scanned or pencil sketches. Almost always mix several techniques and programs to ensure that the image is as I like.
I like to watch every little detail, but always think I can improve more.

Q: How do you deal with creative block?

I don´t almost never soil block my creativity because I always come to mind to new ideas or forms, although I think the best way not to block your creativity is to have an open mind.

Q: What’s a typical day for DrFranken?

Currently I work as a computer programmer for in electric ingeniería since eight years ago. The free time I have left is dedicated to my illustrations and to update my website and my blog. Normally I spend at day three or four hours but sometimes much more.

Q: There is no question that every DrFranken masterpiece is unique and was probably inspired by a powerful personal story. If you could select just 1 particular piece of artwork that’s most special to you, which one would it be? And why?

One of the artworks I’ve done and that more I like is Old Man Typography, it is a work dedicated to my father with great symbolism for me, which is always in my head wherever you are.

Q: What are we going to expect from DrFranken in the days to come?

The newest is the redesign of our web www.nastplas.com, we are also preparing new works and some other surprise …

Q: What advice can you share with aspiring graphic artists?

I think the best advice I can give is that they are perseverant in their work and to strive to improve every day a little more.

Nobody is born knowing everything.

Once again Thank You very much for sharing with us your insights and allowing us to peek inside DrFranken…

As Jim Morrison once said “This is the trip, the best part I really like – Soft Parade”

Look for DrFranken on the web…

Website: nastplas.com

Blogsite: Nastplas Blog

Portfolio: Deviantart, Behance, Museum of Computer Art AutoGallery, Painter Magazine, CG Society, Concept Art

Social Networks: Facebook, Twitter, Myspace

I get a lot of emails (junk) from all platforms, mostly marketing stuff. There’s the group of emails selling money making schemes and then there are e-mail scammers who offer you discounts to non existing products or telling you that you have millions of dollars but you need to give them some money first (ROWL), the list goes on but you know what I mean. And even though I’m sure it’s just a waste of my time I still browse through emails from people I don’t personally know out of curiosity of what they want to talk to me about (I will not advise this but if you have to just don’t click anything you think may harm your machine, hehehehe).

This is how I got introduced to drfranken graphic designer and illustrator of nastplas.com from Madrid, Spain I received an email from him a few days ago with image attachments and links to his other portfolio sites, I was a little skeptic at first, wondering why I’m receiving this email, but curiosity got the best of me for all the good reasons because when I viewed his work I was totally blown away by the experience so I decided to look deeper into who drfranken is.

Drfranken is the other half of nastplas.com they work as freelance illustrators and designers in Madrid, Spain. His style is mostly influenced by grunge and Gothic art. His technique uses airbrush, vectors, photo manipulation and digital painting or a combination which results in a fusion of strange and bizarre but kick-ass awesome work of art, so it’s a great pleasure to share this collection to all of you and I hope you find it interesting as well as inspiring.

Bodiesttre

The Guardian

The face

Spirit of dreams

Reins of the Raven-Lord

Queen of dreams I

Old Man Typograph Dreams

Masquerade

Ktulu

Krowd

Justice one

Just dreams

Intruders

Exotique

Centaurum

The King

More Drfranken art

If you liked this set I would suggest you also view drfranken’s work with Airbrush and Photoshop. You may also want to check out his sets at Deviantart.com and on Behance.net

The internet is overflowing with rare gems. Websites that we can consider a great find in the multitude of websites trying to get a piece of that popularity pie. As a web designer I am often on a quest in search of new skills I could include to my arsenal. And one time I was so inspired by doodle art during my research for my articles “We will, WeeWillDoodle” together with those awesome illustrated websites I’ve featured in “Inspiration: Cultural themed website designs”, that I felt like I had to try it out for myself right then and there, but I was immediately reminded of my limitations because my freehand skills are limited to just doing basic shapes and tracing.

Not to be deterred so easily I sat down to checkout our good old friend Google looking for a tutorial on “how to draw cartoons” which brought me to the website of Jeff Scarterfield from Costa Rica. As fate would have it, it was effectively titled “How to Draw Cartoons Online”. A website that teaches anyone how to draw cartoons. His style is very simple and easy to follow that anyone can do it and the lessons are totally free. You can use it for your projects or if you want to make a hobby out of it. Whatever purpose it may serve this site is one of those rare gems out there. An inspiration and a great resource of drawing styles and technique.

About Jeff Scarterfield

Jeff started drawing at a very young age and soon enough it became his passion, his subjects range from cartoon animals to people and everything in between. A traveler among other things and currently calls Costa Rica home. He put up his website on December of 2007 with a very clear goal — creating simple-yet-effective drawing lessons in hopes to help as many people as possible to become better at drawing… and of course – to inspire people to start drawing too! A cool guy who I think would be fun to hangout with he is really there to help you and inspire you. I hope you all enjoy his lessons as much as I did.

Lessons from Jeff Scarterfield

80′s Cartoons – Skeletor

Skeletor is the arch nemesis of He-Man “The Most Powerful Man in the Universe” a cartoon series from the 80′s. Jeff shows us how he recreates Skeletor using a symmetrical approach.

The initial framework for Skeletor

The final output

View the complete tutorial

Anime – Chibi Characters

Chibi is a Japanese word used to describe a “small thing or a person with a small body”. In manga it often refers to a childlike version of the original characters.

the framework for the Chibi character

View the complete tutorial

Movies – Avatar Dragon “Leonopteryx / Toruk”

In the movie “Avatar” there is a rare dragon that the humans call “Leonopteryx” and the Na’vi people refer to as “Toruk”. Jeff shows us how to draw “the Last Shadow” with just a few strokes.

the frame for the dragon

the final output of the Avatar Dragon

View the complete tutorial

Be Inspired to be an Inspiration

Totally awesome right? Be sure to check out How to Draw Cartoons Online website for more of the complete set of drawing lessons. Jeff has a lot of drawing tutorials available and he continues to update his website with new lessons as well as new categories all the time. And remember to be inspired so you can also be an inspiration to others. If you find this article useful or interesting please help me spread the word and share it with your friends by clicking on the social bookmarking button “Sharing is Sexy!” at the end of this post, Stay Sexy!

I featured January “Jan” Cavan’s dawghousedesignstudio.com in my previous article Inspirations: Cultural themed website designs where I highlighted her web site’s grungy doodle inspired design.

In that article I wrote that doodling and doodlers are now gaining momentum in the design community. To expand on that notion I would like to introduce you to a tribe of doodlerinos and doodlerinas from the Philippines going by the name “WeeWillDoodle”, and as their name suggests, They… Will… Doodle! And it doesn’t matter what surface it is, a wooden board, a concrete wall, shoes, I even saw their doodle work on a Honda, seriously!

What’s exciting about WeeWillDoodle is that they are comprised of individuals from different social backgrounds with diverse influences, a boiling cauldron of creativity. But they doodle collectively as one, creating one ginormous masterpiece. You can say they are like a “fusion rock band” and doodling is their music. Their website mentioned how they started out similarly, every one of them loving to doodle since they were young. And the group agrees how doodling can be a Zen-like experience, it’s a fun activity that also can spontaneously release frustrations.

The guys and gals of WeeWillDoodle has been doodling since May 2007, and it didn’t take a long time for them to get noticed. They’ve been getting commissioned to doodle on walls and/or ceilings of fashion boutiques, offices and even bedrooms. They’ve doodled on promotional merchandise, shirts, bags and on occasion some skin, you name it they will doodle on it. Check out some of their work.

Wall of Doodles

Doodle Merch

A Doodle Header

That’s a wrap

Special mention and a wave to Kyx Castañeda (Doodle Daddy) a friend and former colleague whose picture appears in this article, to his charming and all around wife Daisy for some of the pictures I borrowed from their sites and social-network sites. Great job guys! Two *THUMBS UP and a tip of the proverbial hat to the rest of the “WeeWillDoodle family” for their excellent and inspirational work, and I wish you all good luck and may you continue to share with us exciting and jaw dropping doodles in the coming days ahead.

To get more acquainted with the guys and gals of WeeWillDoodle visit their website at www.weewilldoodle.com you can also look for more of their doodles on deviantart, and flickr or get fresh updates by joining their networks at facebook and multiply.